The invention relates generally to electrical signal transmission and reception, and more particularly to ultra-wideband receivers.
Direct radiation of an electrical impulse without a carrier frequency is a form of ultra-wideband (UWB) transmission which has recently received much attention for high resolution radar and spread-spectrum communications. Since an impulse contains a broad spectrum of frequencies, radars and radios that use impulsive transmitters are inherently spread-spectrum and thus present the possibility of dramatically increasing the usage of crowded airwaves through time domain channel selection rather than frequency domain channel selection. Impulse systems also promise simplified hardware implementation.
At present, a primary limitation to the development and commercialization of UWB systems has been the lack of suitable hardware. Although UWB impulse sources and antennas have received considerable recent attention, UWB receivers remain virtually undeveloped.
Prior art receivers have exclusively consisted of commercial transient digitizers and repetitive sampling oscilloscopes, both of which suffer from high costs ($30K-$100K), poor sensitivity (several millivolts), low repetition rates (10 Hz-50 kHz), and large bulk.